VIVOX Voice Everywhere

2011 was a banner year for the mobile industry. Many changes took place, the growth was extraordinary and all of these developments were extremely important to the industry’s future. Let’s take a look…

First of all, the growth of smartphone adoption last year was staggering. As reported by ReadWriteWeb, the majority of U.S. adults under the age of 35 now own a smartphone, and mobile Web usage among these consumers has grown 45% since 2010. If you further break this down, Gartner says that 324 million smartphones were sold worldwide through the first three quarters of 2011, and if you estimate another 120 million or so for the fourth quarter, that’s a 63% increase in sales compared to the same period in 2010. Pretty incredible numbers if you ask us.

The increase in smartphone adoption certainly helped stimulate Android’s success. Just three years ago, Android had zero market presence, but has since surpassed every major platform to become the number-one selling smartphone. InformationWeek reported that Google is activating 550,000 new Android devices per day with no signs of slowing down.

Following the popularity of the iPad, we were introduced to the Android tablet and Kindle Fire in 2011, but as we went into the holidays, the iPad2 still dominated the industry. And tech analysts predicted this would stick saying that an estimated 13.6 million iPads would be sold in the fourth-quarter. However, as the holidays have passed and sales are being tallied, Morgan Keegan analyst Travis McCourt thinks that somewhere between 1 million and 2 million iPad sales were lost to the Kindle Fire. We will be curious to see the specifics once released.

With all the success and rise of smartphone and tablet usage last year, carriers were hard at work advancing the networks speed and capabilities to handle the volume of traffic and data usage. We were introduced to 4G, and this was only a taste of what is to come. We expect 2012 will be a race among carriers to see who can develop the strongest foundation and this will play a large role in determining who consumers choose for their providers going forward. On that note, Verizon closed out the year by seeking approval from the U.S. to acquire airwaves from cable companies in order to keep up with the demand for all these high-speed mobile devices.

Mobile devices have really become an extension of our everyday lives and it’s becoming rarer to find individuals without their phone at their side. So what are your predictions for how the mobile industry will change this year? Our CEO, Rob Seaver, believes carriers will experience new growth and revenues by partnering with innovative providers to meet the growing consumer demand for Over the Top services, such as T-Mobile’s Bobsled powered by Vivox.

Will the mobile market continue to grow at record speed? What is the one thing you really want to see happen this year?